SAN FRANCISCO 4TH: Bonds homered to center. Santiago grounded
out to shortstop. Rios popped out to shallow right center.
Aurilia singled to left. Feliz singled to center, Aurilia to
second. S Estes popped out to shortstop. SAN DIEGO 0,
SAN FRANCISCO 3.

SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) -- Barry Bonds became the fastest player
in history to reach 30 homers and Shawn Estes tossed eight
scoreless innings to lead the San Francisco Giants to a 3-1
victory over the San Diego Padres.

Bonds hit a solo homer to center field off Bobby Jones in the
fourth inning to reach 30 home runs in just his 57th game,
eclipsing Babe Ruth, who needed 63. Mark McGwire had 30 in 64
games in 1998 when he hit a record 70.

"It's unbelievable, really," San Diego manager Bruce Bochy said
of Bonds' feat. "His bat is going through the zone very quickly.
He's locked in. He's having an incredible year."

Bonds has homered in 11 of his last 16 games and has 15 in that
span.

Estes (5-2) yielded just three hits and four walks with four
strikeouts to extend his scoreless streak to 20 innings. He
improved to 5-0 in seven starts at Pacific Bell Park and has the
best ERA in the National League (2.45).

"I fell like I'm making the pitches in the situations I need
to," Estes said. "I think the matchups have been in my favor in
the last few games. I try and go out there every inning and
compete."

The 28-year-old lefthander continues to pitch well after losses
by San Francisco, going 10-3 with a 2.86 ERA over the past two
seasons. He also improved to 8-4 all-time against San Diego,
his most wins against any opponent.

"This team needed a win," Estes said. "These guys are in our
division and we needed to close the gap against Arizona. We
have to look at it as we're one hit, one pitch or one play
away."

"Shawn has come through great for us when we've needed a win,"
Giants manager Dusty Baker said. "Benito (Santiago) has done a
good job handling him too. He knews when to speed him up and
when to slow him down."

Robb Nen allowed one run in the ninth inning but notched his
12th save of the season. He struck out two and walked one.

Rich Aurilia went 4-for-4 for the Giants, who won for only the
second time in their last seven games. That raised their record
at home to 17-13.

"Shawn has really learned how to pitch," said Aurilia, who
recorded his ninth career four-hit game. "We have a lot of
confidence in Shawn. We made two errors tonight and he didn't
let it effect him. He has an awful lot of confidence in his
stuff right now."

Shawon Dunston led off the game with his second homer, hitting
the first pitch by Jones (2-8) over the left-field fence. It
was Dunston's fourth career leadoff home run and first since
hitting three in 1994 while with the Chicago Cubs.

San Francisco had not led off a game with a home run since
Marvin Benard did it on September 12 at Houston.

"We got some timely hits, especially the home run by Shawon
Dunston to lead off the game and the 30th home run by Barry,"
Baker said. "We would have liked to get more runs, but when you
keep the other team from scoring at all, I guess what you get is
enough."

Jones allowed three runs and 12 hits over eight innings. The
Padres have scored two runs or less in seven of his league-high
eight losses.

Ramon Martinez followed Dunston's homer in the first with a
double to left-center field and went to third on a wild pitch by
Jones. Jeff Kent struck out but Bonds lofted a sacrifice fly to
bring Martinez home for a 2-0 lead.

Bonds' 524th career home run led off the fourth and gave the
Giants a three-run advantage.

"It was a changeup up, obviously not where I wanted to throw
it," Jones said. "I made a good pitch to him at his last at-bat
(in the seventh) and he hit that one too. My approach out there
is to focus on the catcher, not the batter. I have to worry
about making good pitches to get guys out."

Nen started the ninth inning with a walk to Alex Arias, who went
to second on a wild pitch and scored when Mike Darr singled.
After Darr stole second, Nen retired pinch hitter Dave Magadan
on a fly out and struck out Cesar Crespo, also a pinch hitter
and Rickey Henderson to end the game.

San Francisco improved to 6-1 against the Padres this season,
going 4-0 at Pac Bell Park.

Darr finished with two of San Diego's four hits, with Jones and
Ryan Klesko collecting the others. The Padres have lost seven
straight games and fell to 8-18 vs. NL West rivals.

"We knew playing teams in our division would be very, very
tough," Bochy said. "We think that we're the kind of team that
can compete, we're just having trouble putting it together."